arts & life

books
on the cover

Dive In!

Our annual compilation of

page turners offers more than

60 recent titles — all with

a Jewish connection.

FICTION
■ Sara Itzig Levy, the daughter
of Frederick the Great’s banker,
is gifted the manuscript of an
anti-Jewish cantata by Johann
Sebastian Bach’s son, her harp-
sichord teacher. In the ruins of
1945 Germany, an American
soldier takes the manuscript, a

souvenir from a seemingly empty
mansion. The soldier’s niece,
Susanna, finds the manuscript
and sets out to find its rightful
owner. Author Lauren Belfer
(A Fierce Radiance) weaves the
stories of Susanna and Sara
together in And After the Fire
(HarperCollins), which seam-

lessly traverses more than
h 200
years of history, from the glit-
tering salons of the 18th century
through the Holocaust to today.
■ Anna and the Swallow Man
(Alfred A. Knopf) is a debut
novel by Gavriel Savit, who holds
a BFA in musical theater from
the U-M in Ann Arbor, where he

l k his
h book
b k to
grew up. Savit likens
“a fairy tale set in Poland during
the 1930s and 1940s that follows
a young girl, Anna, as she strug-
gles to grow up and stay safe in
a world at war. Left without her
parents at a very vulnerable age,
Anna meets the Swallow Man, a
skilled deceiver with very long

f
fingers
and very deep eyes who
teaches her the ways of the dan-
gerous world. Together they do
their best to survive unharmed.”
Billed for ages 12 and up, Anna
will haunt readers of all ages.
■ A Ukranian exchange student
and the coddled son of Russian
immigrants become parents to

continued on page 50

June 23 • 2016

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